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Speaker Stand Question


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I'm a keys player who moved to a "personal" stereo PA setup for my stage rig a couple years ago (Yamaha MG12/4FX mixer, QSC 1450 power amp, pair of cheap JBL JXR112M floor wedges). I play seated and place the floor wedges to the right an left of my bench - and am happy as can be sitting in the middle of my own little stereo heaven. Unfortunately, I hear time and again from my bandmates that they can't hear me on stage. We're using monitors - but try to limit the monitor mixes to vocals and sax only.

 

I've been thinking about moving my speakers up and off the floor in the hopes of getting a little better coverage on stage. I done a little looking for speaker stands - but other than some studio monitor pedastal stands such as these http://www.ultimatesupport.com/product/MS-45B2 - the only commercial speaker stands I've seen are the typical stands with the 3 legs that spread 3 feet in each direction.

 

I've been blessed with talented friends who've done some custom jobs for me in the past - and I"m now toying with the idea of having a custom stand made based on the following design:

SpeakerStandDiagram.jpg

The diagrams aren't to scale and the dimensions aren't finalized - but you get the idea. I'm thinking that with my 90 pound am/mixer rack serving as ballast on a simple base plate - it should be sturdy enough to hold a pair of 40..ish pound wedge monitors.

 

Can anybody see any reason that something along these lines wouldn't work?

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Looks good to me.


How tall would you want the speakers to be?

 

 

With a 28" tall stand - the top of the speakers would be at just about the 50" mark (speakers themselves are 22" tall). With me sitting - that puts them at roughly shoulder height. I figure I'd set them directly behind me - and turn them slightly outward. I'll have to do a little more measuring with regards to the height. I could probably shorten it down another 6-8 inches ... such that the support crossbar is just clearing the top of the rack - which is important because I want the speakers above the rack itself so that I can turn them a little bit in either direction.

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Not to take anything away from your project, it looks kind of cool, but if you can comfortably hear your instrument(s) and others can't, it shoudn't be an issue to add only what's needed to someones monitor mix and avoid the additional stage noise. That's what they're there for, right?

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Stand looks cool, but I think this is the wrong approach. You're going to very loud at one point of the stage and perhaps not loud enough at the other end. If possible, they just turn you up in the monitors. You don't have an acoustic instrument so you rely on the PA and Monitors to get your instrument out there.

 

This will just cause other instruments to turn up to keep up with you, then before you know it you have a ton of stage noise going on!

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...I think this is the wrong approach. You're going to very loud at one point of the stage and perhaps not loud enough at the other end.

 

 

You raise a good point. I'm not sure it applies 100% to my situation however. In my current in my current setup - my stage monitors are 3 feet from my ears (sitting on the floor on each side of me) and basically pointed at the ceiling. With the stand, the proximity to my ears remains more or less the same - meaning I don't expect that I'll be turning up my volume. I will however quit blowing it straight at the ceiling and instead allow the existing sound to better cover the stage. Unfortunately, like many bar bands - monitor resources are somewhat limited - and by design, reserved for vocals and sax to the extent that we can.

 

In this case - I don't expect that I'll be pumping any addition volume into the "sonic stew" - but rather reorienting volume that's already present in a more useful direction.

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Use a pair of Grado open air headphones for monitoring your keyboards. You'll hear them with better fidelity, and still be able to hear what's happening on stage. Then put your current speakers where the other band members like them.

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Your ballast might not be enough weight - I'm not sure though, I'm miles away from any sort of engineering skills.

 

My biggest fear in this regard is that someone unfamiliar with this set-up would move your rack (for whatever reasons) and down would come baby, speakers and all.

 

Personally I just can't see how adding a bit of keys to the monitors would be any less desirable than adding keys to the general stage wash. I mean volume is volume right, except IMO adding keys to the stage wash would be worse.

 

Why don't you try adding keys to the monitors first - it might work. If it doesn't then try something else.

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